Traditional thinking
The recommendation that we have always heard is that heifers need to reach about 65% of her mature body weight before breeding. This is the general rule of thumb in order to maximize her pregnancy rate. However, there have been multiple studies that have shown she can be developed to as low as 48 to 50% without negatively affecting pregnancy rates.
Developing heifers right
Since they will be staying in the production herd the cost of developing a replacement heifer will faced entirely by the producer. With this in mind it is a good idea to raise these heifers in a low-input, forage based system. Studies have shown that conception rates are very similar between forage raised and drylot raised ones. And this is with only about half the costs.
Benefits of forage raised
As I mentioned earlier one benefit of raising heifers on forage is the reduced costs. At the time of breeding forage raised heifers reach breeding age at about 80 to 100lbs lighter than the others. And they will be in better body condition because they have already gotten use to eating forages.
Now you may be asking “but what about the break even point?”. According to these studies the forage raised heifers became profitable at 3 to 4 years of age. The heifers developed conventionally didn’t pay for themselves till 9 to 10 years.
Another advantage to low-cost development is these heifers will last longer in the cowherd. Research from New Mexico and Montana showed that 30 to 60% of these heifers were still in the herd after 5 years of age. So basically not only do they pay for themselves quicker but they are still producing longer.
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